A Mirror in Hypertext..

My headscarf blew gently against the early autumn wind, as my friend and I walked briskly towards the city centre in an urban part of Montreal. Dressed casually in a long denim skirt and blouse, my friend too, was dressed in modest Moslem attire.

As we entered the mall, the warmth of the heating that circulated in the building enveloped our shivering bodies.

We have just arrived in Canada for over a month, and were not used to the cold weather. Both born from a tropical South-eastern country where its intense heat darkens bare skin, its pollution level so high that the small particles of dust and chemicals can barely be filtered through the nostril hairs and its culture colors the diversity of its people.

Canada was a lot different from home.

Striding past shops, peering at the windows once in a while, we noticed something strange about the people around us.

It may have been my imagination, but people looked at us in a peculiar manner. Or so I thought. Chills ran down my spine.

What was wrong? I had not been stared this way before in any of my outings. But, we took no heed of the stares, determined to enjoy our day out.

Suddenly an immaculately dressed elderly man walked by, and uttered a disgraceful word at us. “Terrorists!” he sneered.

Shocked, we stood frozen in our tracks. It was the 3^rd of October 2005 – a day after the second Bali bombing attacks. Islamic terrorists were the main suspects of the attack.

Now I understood the stares.

My Pan-Asian looks, waist-long dark brown hair that is veiled behind my headscarf, dark brown eyes and fair skin could easily deceive people from guessing my nationality, thanks to my hybrid descendants. But my friend, had looks of a typical Indonesian woman.

The small island of Bali is one of the thousands of islands in our country. Indonesia, known as a small replica of the world with the diversity of its people and culture, has been under close scrutiny of the World with its recent bombing attacks that caused ripples throughout the Moslem world.

And Islam, the religion of the ‘terrorists’ is criticized by the media for its extremist teachings that impulses these terrorists to wage a holy war against the ‘infidels’.

But, this is an unfair portrayal of Islam and Moslems. The word ‘Islam’ in fact means peace, and history can bear witness to how the Islamic empire during its height ruled with peace and harmony.

And it is most unfair to wrongly blame Moslems in general for the attacks of a handful of men.

Moslems like my friend and me.

Joe Kincheloe in his book, Miseducation of the West asserts that the misdeeds of the American empire have been an important role in the formation of an Islamist extremism that disregards its sacred teachings. He argues further that schools in the West have also played an important role in the portrayal of anti-Islamic sentiments.

It is arguably understandable that a problem should not be divorced from its context. But what kind of misdeeds has caused such vehement anger amongst Moslems?

Kincheloe puts forth evidence of corporate conspiracy of the oil industry in the Middle-East and America’s involvement in the internal state affairs that only benefit the American empire as one cause of this antagonism.

11^th September also marked a historical moment when two planes crashed into WTC. A historical moment that has shocked the entire world.

But having lived in the West and the East, I’ve heard two different perspectives. In the East, evidence of a conspiracy between the CIA and MOSSAD has been circulating around. On the other hand, the Western perspective has consistently blamed the Islamic terrorists.

So which perspective should one believe?

Shirley Steinbergh’s chapter on on Dessert Minstrels: Hollywood’s Curriculum of Arabs and Muslims in Miseducation of the West explains how popular culture also plays a role in the distorted and demonized view of the Islamic World; through video games, edutainment CD-ROMS and films.

But why is there a need to portray Islam in such a way? Why does the West greatly fear Islam?

Kincheloe stresses the Islamic threat to US global dominance fills the enemy vacuum after the fall of the Communist bloc perfectly.

This Islamic threat is much bigger than the holy war that the extremist wage. It is the threat of the formation of an Islamic empire that will bring forth its own social, political and economic system.

This empire will threaten the interests of capitalism, neo-liberalism and consumerism.

Only the bombardment of anti-Islamic sentiments in the media and popular culture will confirm how threatening this empire will be. 

And the war of interests will begin.

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